Mobile payments

China hasn't exactly opened its arms wide to embrace U.S. payments companies, but the nation has gradually become more accepting of the foreign payments businesses that view its tech-savvy population as a lucrative market.

The restaurant technology is a category-specific move that mirrors a broader strategy at Square, which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past few months to round out its merchant services products.

Banks, technology developers and payment companies are all experimenting with new ways to identify consumers by their unique physical traits, with the ultimate goal of improving security while also streamlining customer onboarding and authentication.